Patsy Rowlands
Encyclopedia
Patsy Rowlands was an English
actress who is best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films
, as Betty in the popular ITV Thames sitcom Bless This House, and as Alice Meredith in the Yorkshire Television
sitcom Hallelujah!
.
, London
and attended a succession of convent
schools throughout her childhood. At one an elocution
teacher spotted her potential and encouraged her to pursue a career in acting. She applied for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
, and won a scholarship aged fifteen.
, followed by a summer season in Torquay. She then spent several years with the Players' Theatre
in London, before making her West End debut in Sandy Wilson
's musical Valmouth
. It was at this time she met her future husband, the composer Malcolm Sircom
. They divorced in 1967.
Other West End theatre
credits included Semi-Detached with Laurence Olivier
and directed by Tony Richardson
(with whom she was to work often), Shut Your Eyes and Think of England, with Donald Sinden
, The Seagull
and Ben Travers
's The Bed Before Yesterday, both directed by Lindsay Anderson
and When We Are Married for Ronald Eyre
. She also starred in Cameron Mackintosh
's revival of Oliver!
in the mid-1990s as well as playing Jack's mother in the original London Cast of Sondheim's Into the Woods alongside Julia McKenzie
and Imelda Staunton
. One of her final musical appearances in the West End was as Mrs Pearce in the National Theatre's production of My Fair Lady which also starred Jonathan Pryce
.
in 1969 and soon became a regular member of the team, usually playing the dowdy, put-upon wife or the long-suffering secretary. Between 1969 and 1975 she appeared in nine of the films, including Carry On Loving
, Carry On At Your Convenience
, Carry On Girls
and Carry On Behind
.
On 7 March 1971 she starred in a single episode (You've Really Landed Me In It This Time) of popular ITV sitcom Doctor at Large, with Barry Evans and George Layton
, as a nymphomaniac secretary, a role she seemed to relish and had played similarly in Carry On Loving
.
From 1971 to 1976, she played Betty, the feckless neighbour in the popular ITV sitcom Bless This House, which starred fellow Carry On star Sid James
. Her other television credits at this time included appearances with comedians such as Les Dawson
and Dick Emery
. In the early 1980s, she appeared with Thora Hird
in the sitcom Hallelujah!
, in which they played an aunt and niece in The Salvation Army
. In 1991 she appeared in an episode of Zorro
filmed in Madrid, Spain.
at the London Palladium and My Fair Lady
at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Later television credits include The Cazalets, The Canterbury Tales
, The Cater Street Hangman, Get Well Soon, Vanity Fair, Murder Most English, and Bottom
for the BBC
. In 2002 she was a guest on the paranormal series Most Haunted
. Rowlands completed several DVD audio commentaries along with other surviving stars of the Carry On films in 2003.
Juliet Bravo 1981 Episode #2.2 Arlene - Played "Muriel Davis" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0617656/
and had to give up her plans to become an acting teacher and quietly retire. She died of the disease in an East Sussex
hospice, three days after her 74th birthday. She was survived by her only son, Alan.Patsy was described as a 'stalwart' of the Carry On films by national newspaper obituaries.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
actress who is best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films
Carry On films
The Carry On films are a series of low-budget British comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. They are an energetic mix of parody, farce, slapstick and double entendres....
, as Betty in the popular ITV Thames sitcom Bless This House, and as Alice Meredith in the Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
sitcom Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! (TV series)
Hallelujah! was a British sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and was broadcast from April 1983 to December 1984.The series was set in a Salvation Army citadel in the fictional Yorkshire town of Brigthorpe during series 1...
.
Early years
She was born in Palmers GreenPalmers Green
Palmers Green is a place in the London Borough of Enfield. It is a suburban area situated 7.6 miles north of Charing Cross. Postally, it is in London N13...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and attended a succession of convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
schools throughout her childhood. At one an elocution
Elocution
Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone.-History:In Western classical rhetoric, elocution was one of the five core disciplines of pronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper diction, but on the proper...
teacher spotted her potential and encouraged her to pursue a career in acting. She applied for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
, and won a scholarship aged fifteen.
Theatre career
Rowlands began her career in the chorus of Annie Get Your GunAnnie Get Your Gun (musical)
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley , who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler.The 1946 Broadway production...
, followed by a summer season in Torquay. She then spent several years with the Players' Theatre
Players' Theatre
The Players' Theatre was a theatre in London as well as a theatre club for music hall in the style of the BBC programme "The Good Old Days".-Origins:...
in London, before making her West End debut in Sandy Wilson
Sandy Wilson
Sandy Wilson is an English composer and lyricist, best known for his musical The Boy Friend .-Biography:Wilson was born Alexander Galbraith Wilson in Sale, Greater Manchester, and was educated at Harrow School and Oriel College, Oxford. During the war he served in the Royal Ordnance Corps in Great...
's musical Valmouth
Valmouth
thumb|1st edition Cover by [[Augustus John]] Valmouth is a 1919 novel by British author Ronald Firbank. Valmouth is an imaginary English spa resort that attracts centenarians owing to its famed pure air...
. It was at this time she met her future husband, the composer Malcolm Sircom
Malcolm Sircom
Malcolm A. Sircom was an English writer, musician, musical director and composer.Born in 1934, he grew up next to Highbury, the old home of Arsenal Football Club, of which he was an eager supporter. He was also a keen cricket player....
. They divorced in 1967.
Other West End theatre
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
credits included Semi-Detached with Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
and directed by Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
(with whom she was to work often), Shut Your Eyes and Think of England, with Donald Sinden
Donald Sinden
Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE is an English actor of theatre, film and television.-Personal life:Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes , he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home doubled as the...
, The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
and Ben Travers
Ben Travers
Ben Travers AFC CBE in London) was a British playwright best remembered for his farces.Born in the London borough of Hendon, Travers was educated at Charterhouse, where today there is a theatre named for him...
's The Bed Before Yesterday, both directed by Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...
and When We Are Married for Ronald Eyre
Ronald Eyre
Ronald Eyre was an English theatre director, actor and writer.Eyre was born at Mapplewell, near Barnsley, Yorkshire and he taught at Giggleswick School. He became a leading director for the cinema, opera, television and the theatre...
. She also starred in Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...
's revival of Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
in the mid-1990s as well as playing Jack's mother in the original London Cast of Sondheim's Into the Woods alongside Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
and Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series and Vera Drake...
. One of her final musical appearances in the West End was as Mrs Pearce in the National Theatre's production of My Fair Lady which also starred Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
.
Carry On
She made her debut in the Carry On films in Carry On Again DoctorCarry On Again Doctor
Carry On Again Doctor is the eighteenth Carry On film. It was released in 1969 and was the third to feature a medical theme. The film features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor and Hattie Jacques...
in 1969 and soon became a regular member of the team, usually playing the dowdy, put-upon wife or the long-suffering secretary. Between 1969 and 1975 she appeared in nine of the films, including Carry On Loving
Carry On Loving
Carry On Loving is the twentieth Carry On film, and was released in 1970. It features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott and Bernard Bresslaw alongside newcomers Richard O'Callaghan and Jacki Piper . Carry On Loving featured...
, Carry On At Your Convenience
Carry On at Your Convenience
Carry On at Your Convenience, released in 1971, is the 22nd film of the Carry On series and was the first box office failure of the series. The failure has been attributed to the film's attempt at exploring the political themes of the trade union movement, crucially portraying the union activists...
, Carry On Girls
Carry On Girls
Carry On Girls is the 25th Carry On film, released in Britain in 1973. The film is notable for being the first not to feature either Kenneth Williams or Charles Hawtrey. Williams was appearing in a West End play, My Fat Friend. Hawtrey had been dropped from the series the year before...
and Carry On Behind
Carry On Behind
Carry On Behind is the twenty-seventh Carry On film and was released in 1975. The film was the first not to feature Sid James since Follow That Camel seven years previously. It was also the first not to be scripted by Talbot Rothwell since Carry On Cruising 13 years previously. James was busy...
.
On 7 March 1971 she starred in a single episode (You've Really Landed Me In It This Time) of popular ITV sitcom Doctor at Large, with Barry Evans and George Layton
George Layton
George Layton is an English actor, director, screenwriter and author. He was educated at Belle Vue Boys' Grammar School in Bradford and later studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where he won the Emile Littler award. He went on to leading parts at Coventry and Nottingham and...
, as a nymphomaniac secretary, a role she seemed to relish and had played similarly in Carry On Loving
Carry On Loving
Carry On Loving is the twentieth Carry On film, and was released in 1970. It features series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott and Bernard Bresslaw alongside newcomers Richard O'Callaghan and Jacki Piper . Carry On Loving featured...
.
From 1971 to 1976, she played Betty, the feckless neighbour in the popular ITV sitcom Bless This House, which starred fellow Carry On star Sid James
Sid James
Sid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...
. Her other television credits at this time included appearances with comedians such as Les Dawson
Les Dawson
Leslie "Les" Dawson was a popular English comedian remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.-Life and career:...
and Dick Emery
Dick Emery
Richard Gilbert "Dick" Emery was an English comedian and actor. Beginning on radio in the 1950s, an eponymous television series ran from 1963 to 1981. He was the brother of Ann Emery.-Life and career:...
. In the early 1980s, she appeared with Thora Hird
Thora Hird
Dame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...
in the sitcom Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! (TV series)
Hallelujah! was a British sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and was broadcast from April 1983 to December 1984.The series was set in a Salvation Army citadel in the fictional Yorkshire town of Brigthorpe during series 1...
, in which they played an aunt and niece in The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
. In 1991 she appeared in an episode of Zorro
Zorro (1990 TV series)
Zorro, also known as The New Zorro, New World Zorro, and Zorro 1990, is an American action-adventure drama series featuring Duncan Regehr as the character of Zorro. Regehr portrayed the fearless Latino hero and fencer on The Family Channel from 1990 to 1993...
filmed in Madrid, Spain.
Later years
Towards the end of her life, Rowlands appeared in several revivals of major musicals such as Oliver!Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
at the London Palladium and My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Later television credits include The Cazalets, The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
, The Cater Street Hangman, Get Well Soon, Vanity Fair, Murder Most English, and Bottom
Bottom (TV series)
Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. In 2002 she was a guest on the paranormal series Most Haunted
Most Haunted
Most Haunted is a British paranormal documentary reality television series. The series was first shown on 25 May 2002 and ended on 21 July 2010. It was broadcast on Living and presented by Yvette Fielding. The programme was based on investigating purported paranormal activity...
. Rowlands completed several DVD audio commentaries along with other surviving stars of the Carry On films in 2003.
Juliet Bravo 1981 Episode #2.2 Arlene - Played "Muriel Davis" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0617656/
Death
Rowlands developed breast cancerBreast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
and had to give up her plans to become an acting teacher and quietly retire. She died of the disease in an East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
hospice, three days after her 74th birthday. She was survived by her only son, Alan.Patsy was described as a 'stalwart' of the Carry On films by national newspaper obituaries.
Comedy
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Gert and Daisy Gert and Daisy Gert and Daisy were the two characters of a British female comedy act who are particularly remembered for their contribution to film and radio entertainment during World War II... |
Bonnie |
| 1964 | Danger Man Danger Man Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts... |
Mrs. Farebrother |
| 1971 to 1976 | Bless This House | Betty Lewis |
| 1974 to 1977 | The Squirrels The Squirrels (TV series) The Squirrels is a British television sitcom, written by Eric Chappell, who went on to then later create to write Yorkshire Television sitcoms Rising Damp and Only When I Laugh. It ran for 3 series and 28 episodes and was made and broadcast from 1974 to 1977 on the ITV network, by ATV... |
Susan |
| 1980 | The Nesbitts Are Coming | WPC Naylor |
| 1981 | Kinvig Kinvig - Synopsis :Des Kinvig runs an electrical repair shop in the small town of Bingleton.One day his store is visited by Miss Griffin , who is from the planet Mercury and in need of Des' help... |
Netta Kinvig |
| 1983 to 1984 | Hallelujah! Hallelujah! (TV series) Hallelujah! was a British sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and was broadcast from April 1983 to December 1984.The series was set in a Salvation Army citadel in the fictional Yorkshire town of Brigthorpe during series 1... |
Alice Meredith |
| 1992 | Bottom Bottom (TV series) Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London... |
Lil Potato |
| 1997 | Get Well Soon Get Well Soon (TV series) Get Well Soon was a short-lived 1997 BBC television comedy series starring Matthew Cottle and Eddie Marsan. Lasting only 6 episodes, it was about the everyday lives of a group of patients, doctors, nurses and other staff at a National Health Service hospital during the post-World War II period. The... |
Mrs Clapton |
Children's
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1980s/90s | Rainbow Rainbow (TV series) Rainbow is a British children's television series, created by Pamela Lonsdale, which ran twice weekly at 12:10 on Tuesdays and Fridays on the ITV network, from 16 October 1972 to 6 March 1992... |
Auntie |
Drama
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Danger Man Danger Man Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts... |
Mrs. Farebrother |
| 2001 | The Cazalets The Cazalets The Cazalets is a 2001 five-episode television drama series about a large privileged family set at the time of World War II, set between 1937 and 1947. It was based on the novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard, adapted by the screenwriter Douglas Livingstone. The series was originally produced by Cinema... |
Governess |
Selected filmography
- Over the OddsOver the OddsOver the Odds is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Michael Forlong and starring Marjorie Rhodes, Glenn Melvyn, Cyril Smith, Esma Cannon and Thora Hird and Wilfrid Lawson. A bookmaker struggles to cope with his two mother-in-laws...
(1961) - On the FiddleOn the FiddleOn the Fiddle is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Sean Connery, Alfred Lynch, Cecil Parker, Stanley Holloway, Eric Barker, Mike Sarne, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Kathleen Harrison, Victor Maddern and John Le Mesurier....
(1961) - A Kind of LovingA Kind of Loving (film)A Kind of Loving is a 1962 British drama film directed by John Schlesinger, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Stan Barstow. It stars Alan Bates and June Ritchie as two lovers in 1960s West Yorkshire. The photography was by Denys Coop, and the music by Ron Grainer...
(1962) - Tom JonesTom Jones (film)Tom Jones is a 1963 British adventure comedy film, an adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling , starring Albert Finney as the titular hero. It was one of the most critically acclaimed and popular comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards...
(1963) - A Stitch in TimeA Stitch in Time (film)A Stitch in Time is a 1963 Norman Wisdom comedy film set in a children's hospital. It was directed by Robert Asher and edited by Gerry Hambling. The cast includes Edward Chapman, Jeanette Sterke, Jerry Desmonde, Jill Melford, Glyn Houston, Vera Day, Patsy Rowlands, Peter Jones, Ernest Clark,...
(1963) - Dateline DiamondsDateline DiamondsDateline Diamonds is a 1966 British music-film. The film was shot in black and white. The "pop and cop" genre of film was a popular concept in the UK during the early 1960s to highlight young music talent and was geared to appeal directly to the young teenage market...
(1965) - Please Sir!Please Sir! (film)Please Sir! is a 1971 British comedy film starring John Alderton, spun off from the television series Please Sir!.-Cast:* John Alderton as Bernard Hedges* Deryck Guyler as Norman Potter* Noel Howlett as Maurice Cromwell...
(1971) - Bless This HouseBless This House (film)Bless This House is a 1972 British comedy film and a spin off from the television sitcom Bless This House.-Cast:The film starred many of the main stars from the TV series but some were missing and were replaced.*Sid James as Sid Abbot...
(1972) - Little Lord FauntleroyLittle Lord Fauntleroy (1980 film)Little Lord Fauntleroy is a 1980 British family film directed by Jack Gold and starring Alec Guiness, Rick Schroder and Eric Porter. It is based on the children's novel of the same name.-Plot synopsis:...
(1980)